Upcoming episodes will include Peters portraying Jim Jones — the People's Temple leader behind the mass murder at Jonestown — and the Branch Davidians' David Koresh, who led his people into the deadly siege at Waco in 1993.

"[Cult leaders] really are idiots," he explained, "but for some reason in the culture at that time there was something going on that people were so disenfranchised that they were, like, 'Yeah, I'm going to follow you, Charles Manson, and I'm going to do whatever you say'."

The writer went on to say: "It really is about the rise of a cult of personality that can rise in a divided society."

American Horror Story: Cult airs on FX in the US and on FOX in the UK.